1. "Maschil of Asaph." O God, why have you cast us off for ever? why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2. Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein you have dwelt.
3. Lift up your footsteps towards the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4. Your enemies roar in the midst of your congregations; they set up their banners as signs.
5. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7. They have thrown fire into your sanctuary, they have defiled the dwelling place of your name by throwing it down to the ground.
8. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9. We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long.
10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?
11. Why do you withdraw your hand, even your right hand? pluck it out of your bosom.
12. For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13. You divided the sea by your strength: you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14. You broke the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15. You opened the fountain and the flood: you dried up mighty rivers.
16. The day is yours, the night also is yours: you have prepared the light and the sun.
17. You have established all the borders of the earth: you have made summer and winter.
18. Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19. O do not deliver the soul of your turtledove to the multitude of the wicked: do not forget the congregation of your poor for ever.
20. Have respect to the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise your name.
22. Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily.
23. Do not forget the voice of your enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against you increases continually.
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